Stephanie's Journey To The End Of Time
by LadyEliseB
Summary: Summary: On one mad night in August 2040, twenty-four year old Stephanie Hunter meets two enigmatic men. One is a Destroyer of Worlds. The other is a cute scientist. Can she trust either of them?


**Stephanie's Journey to the End of Time**

Author's Note: This fic features my own characters and the tenth Doctor. The action takes place during the time the Doctor was travelling, sometime after _Journey's End_ and before _The End of Time_, but I may play around with the canon if it suits my story. You know, wibbly, wobbly timey wimey stuff.

I will try and update once a week, but it may sometimes be longer than that, due to other commitments. I've got a rough idea where this story is going, but there may be some twists and turns along the way. My hope is that by the time I've finished it will appear like a proper Doctor Who series, with several different 'episodes' that have a different story, as well as a story arc. But I don't know how long it's going to take me to get there.

Disclaimer: Apart from original characters that I've added, I don't own any of the canon characters or situations from the Doctor Who series.

oOo

_Summary: On one mad night in August, twenty-four year old Stephanie Hunter meets two enigmatic men. One is a Destroyer of Worlds. The other is a cute scientist. Can she trust either of them?_

oOo

_Earth - The Year 2040_

Stephanie stepped out of the black cab and into torrential rain. It was a typical British summer, so she should not have been surprised. But the rain felt icy cold on her neck, making her shiver.

"Meet me for drinks," she muttered to herself, as she rushed through the rain towards the pub, keeping her head down. "We'll catch up on old times." Trust the government to be testing their new weather systems tonight of all nights. There had been warnings on the telly, but she barely paid attention nowadays.

The Weatherby cure for global warming, world hunger and wet summers was old news. Except they'd forgotten the bit about no more wet summers. At least between the hours of 7am and 10pm. It was supposed to rain later, to ensure the crops were watered, but not ruin the tourism trade by soaking people as they went about their business. Oh well, she thought to herself, there are bound to be teething problems.

As another icy rain drop fell down her neck, she wished she had cancelled. It wasn't as if Mandy had bothered with her for ages, whilst the new boyfriend was around. There were many nights that Stephanie could have done with the company, especially since her mum and dad died. But Mandy was all loved up with … oh what was his name?

Forgetting for a moment, Stephanie pushed the door of the pub open. Immediately steam began to rise from her clothes, and she went from feeling icy cold to hot and sticky in an instant. Throwing off her coat, she hung it on an old coat stand near to the door.

Looking around the pub, Stephanie could see no sign of Mandy. As she walked to the bar, she checked her mobile phone to see if Mandy had left a message. There were two. Both sent five minutes after Stephanie had left her house.

"_Sorry, can't come. Pete had crappy day at work."_

The second, sent ten minutes after, and presumably because Stephanie hadn't answered, said: "_U don't mind, do U?"_

Yes, she did mind! Pete was always having crappy days at work. It seemed to happen every time Mandy might want to go out and enjoy herself.

She pushed in at the bar, knowing that if she didn't assert herself all the men would get served first. The man standing next to her seemed startled, but he moved up a bit, and continued to look down at his drink. The man on the other side of her did the same.

"What can I get you?" said the barman.

"Just a glass of the house white, please."

"What do you think of this weather then?" He handed her the wine. She wasn't in the mood for chat, but he was polite and he talked to her, which was rare for pub and shop staff nowadays. Since the last government had abandoned the National Minimum Wage, they gave up any pretence of civility.

"I'd like to give what's his name? Bruno Weatherby? Of Weatherby's Weather? I'd like to give him a piece of my mind. How difficult was it to create a weather system that worked when everyone was asleep?"

"Actually," said the man standing to the left of her, "It was very difficult. It kept me up nights." He spoke with an Australian twang.

Stephanie looked at him for the first time, and then went pale. He was tall, broad shouldered and ruggedly handsome, with wide blue eyes. And just like he looked in the newspapers. "Mr. Bruno Weatherby, I presume?" she said.

"The very same."

"Well, I'm sorry, but your weather system is rubbish. I mean, should you be in here, drinking when the country is getting wet at the wrong time?"

"I am allowed time off, you know. Besides, I came here to meet someone."

"So should you be dating when the world is getting wet?"

"It's not … never mind. Please, accept my apologies about the weather system. I don't know what's going wrong and I was hoping to meet a man who said he did know."

"Don't you have people at your erm… weather place, who know what's wrong?"

"Sadly not. According to all our instruments, the system is working fine. Whatever this rain is, it wasn't caused by us."

"How is that possible? I thought the system controlled all the world's weather now."

"Maybe Mother Nature has other ideas."

"Yes, I suppose that might be it. Anyway, I'm sorry I snapped at you. It's just that I was supposed to meet a friend and she's stood me up for her needy boyfriend and it was raining and …" Stephanie rolled her eyes. How self-absorbed must she sound? "But you have much bigger problems than that."

"It's not a huge problem. We'll get it back under control."

"Oh, I don't know about that," said the man who had been standing to the right of Stephanie. She turned and glared at him. He was tall and thin, and had big brown eyes, which were behind thick rimmed glasses. It seemed to be Stephanie's night for nice looking men. There was something else about this man. He looked to be in his mid-thirties, but his eyes were older. Her grandmother used to say of some people that they had an old soul. This man's soul must be ancient. "I think we've got a big problem on our hands."

"And you are?" said Bruno.

"Oh yes, sorry, I'm the Doctor." He held out his hand to Bruno, then to Stephanie.

"Doctor Who?" said Stephanie.

"Just the Doctor. And you are?"

"Stephanie Hunter."

"Nice to meet you, Stephanie. Whatever has got hold of the weather is not a natural phenomenon, Bruno. It's alright if I call you Bruno, isn't it?"

"Yes, that's fine by me."

"Great, then we're all friends. I'm glad you got my message," the Doctor said to Bruno.

"So it was you who wanted me meet me here? I wouldn't have come, but you seemed to know so much about me. Some of it that I've never made public."

"Yes, I hoped that would get you here. Though why you're ashamed of being a child prodigy and gaining your first degree at the age of eleven, I don't know."

"Because if people think you're a prodigy, they treat you like a freak. I like to be treated like a normal person."

"Oh, that's awful," said Stephanie. Bruno smiled at her.

"But you're not a normal person, Bruno. You're a genius. You should embrace that. I do."

"Why?" Stephanie raised an eyebrow. "Are you a genius too?"

"Oh yes," said the Doctor, without hesitation or shame. "I'm probably the cleverest man in the universe. But Bruno here, well he comes a close second. The only reason he doesn't know the things I do is because he hasn't seen all I've seen."

"Oh. Well, I got three a-levels and I work in an office. I suppose this conversation might be a bit too cerebral for little old me, so I'll leave you both to it." Stephanie picked up her glass of wine.

"No, don't go," said Bruno.

"No, Stephanie, don't go," the Doctor agreed. "One of the most fantastic people I've ever met worked in an office." His dark eyes became a little darker. "Yeah, she was brilliant. And I bet you're brilliant too, in your own way."

"If you're going to patronise me…"

"What? No. I didn't mean that. Humans are brilliant."

Stephanie and Bruno exchanged glances. Humans? What did the Doctor mean by that?

"Oh yes, you're all fantastic. You can get a man to the moon, well just the once, but it was a good once. And you will get better at space travel. You also make the best tea in the universe. Believe me, I've had tea on Chlom and it's vile. Mind you, it had things floating in it that bit you if you weren't careful. They like to live dangerously up there."

"Are you saying you're an alien?" asked Bruno.

"Yes."

"Oh well, Doctor, it was nice knowing you. Stephanie, can I see you to a taxi?"

"Erm … yeah, okay." Bruno was probably right to cut and run, and yet there was something about the way the Doctor spoke that made Stephanie believe him. Or at least she believed that he believed what he said. Whether that was a good thing, she did not know.

"And," said the Doctor, folding his arms and looking at them like a schoolmaster who was disappointed in his pupils, "Other times humans can be really stupid. Because within the last forty years, there have been space ships over London, and one, shaped like the Titanic, nearly crashed into Buckingham Palace. Nearly every Christmas in the early part of the century, Santas and Christmas tree decorations come to life and start shooting people. In a very short time, you'll have colonists on Mars – mind you, that won't go so well, but let's not go there. Yet, you still deny the existence of life on other planets."

The barman cut in. "Sounds like you've had too much to drink, mate. Maybe someone should call you a cab."

"I've only had a dandelion and burdock," the Doctor exclaimed. "That's another thing. On no other planet would people think 'let's make a drink out of a flower that makes you wee and a thistle'. See, you humans are brilliant!"

"Perhaps we should go," said Bruno. "Come on, Doctor, you can tell me about your theory on the way back to my office."

"I'd best be getting home," said Stephanie, feeling a bit of a spare wheel. It had been kind of Bruno to ask her to stay, but she couldn't crash her way into his office.

"I'll get you a taxi," said Bruno.

"Thanks." Steph smiled up at him. "Are you sure you'll be alright? You know, with him?"

Stephanie jerked her head towards the door, where the doctor had it open and was pointing what looked like a thick pen up at the sky.

"Nothing I can't handle," said Guy. "He's a bit strange but he did know stuff about me."

"He could be a stalker or a lunatic."

"I've got some good security at the Weatherby building, I'll be fine. But I think you should go home."

"Oh, of course."

"Not that I don't want you there, Stephanie. I just think … you know … if things go a bit mental. Here." Bruno reached into his pocket and took out a card. "Here's my card. Give me a call tomorrow and I'll let you know how things went."

"Okay." Stephanie took the card and put it in her bag. So he did want to hear from her again. They walked to the door together. As they did so, there was a sound of car alarms going off, and people crying out.

"We can't leave," said the Doctor.

"I don't think the barman is going to let you stay," said Bruno.

"Look, out there."

Stephanie and Bruno looked out to see the strangest storm ever.

Hail stones the size of tennis balls were falling to the ground and crashing either against vehicles and people or onto the ground. A high wind was buffeting them around all over the place.

One hit a man on the head. He fell to the ground, groaning in agony. Stephanie was about to run out and help him, but Bruno caught her by the arm and yanked her back in.

"He needs help," she cried. "He's bleeding."

"You can't go out there, Stephanie," said the Doctor. "You'll get killed."

As if to illustrate his point, another hail stone flew towards the pub door and smashed at their feet.

"Well, you two heroes can stay safe and warm in here if you want, but I'm going out there to help," said Stephanie.

She grabbed her coat from the hanger, and, throwing it over her head, went out into the storm …


End file.
